Hospital Violence in Florida–Employee Who Was Recently Let Go Shoots Himself After Barricading in the Cafeteria

Posted Nov 06 2010 1:51pm

Here’s yet another story about hospital violence and yes they are becoming a dangerous place to work at times like this as you never know today when someone with pressures of losing a job, making house payments, etc. will lead to an event like this. Again I come back around to the fact that we are somewhat living in denial and not giving the public a full explanation of why layoffs and other events are happening today based on “business decisions”. It may not make things any better but at least the public is owed the educational process of what is really occurring as companies run leaner and are looking to stay alive themselves at times.

Right now we have around half of the hospitals in the LA area operating in the red and this is not good as contracts and budgets have squeezed just about all they can and when it bottoms out at trying to reduced “fixed” costs, we have a problem as they can’t go any lower. All are investing in software to try to fix and save money where ever they can with analysis processes and those are helpful but not the complete answer either as sometimes the results end up forecasting layoffs as part of the solution. It will bottom out here when layoffs severely begin affecting patient safety too. The next obvious move is up the other end of the ladder with looking at other sources, like cheaper drugs, cheaper medical devices and some hospitals are putting on the pressure as they really don’t have many other choices. Last year we had this tragic situation in Long Beach.

In a few years, who in the world is going to want to be a hospital CIO, I ask where the ultimate decision making responsibility lies? How long will they last in these economically produced pressure cookers? We are all human and they are no different and tackle some very difficult challenges today too, but they can’t do miracles. We need the doctors and nurses for our life saving miracles with with surgeries and other things they do, but with the economic dollars even those areas seem to sadly be getting discounted too, so where’s the balance and where do ethics and profits meet? We are all trying to figure that one out.

In the meantime shattered lives, of those who do not comprehend or are not given some explanations, real ones, are left in a haze of confusion and thus we are seeing more sad actions like this one and I ask is this appropriate to continue to let this keep occurring? Profits and the mental wellness of the US citizens need to reach some happy mediums soon I think.

Perhaps in time when we can finally come to the reality of how mathematical formulas have re-distributed the money in the country through software algorithms and transaction that run the background It’s not going to get any better until both sides have the same capabilities to use the same “machine gun” type of technology and stress levels will continue to rise. BD

A gunman who opened fire in the Palm Bay Hospital in Florida has been found dead by police. Authorities say he was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he barricaded himself inside the facility’s cafeteria.

Palm Bay police officers said John Jack, 39, held officers and SWAT team members at bay for around four hours before taking his own life.

There was no exchange of fire between Jack and authorities.

There were no injuries in the incident, other than the suicide.

SWAT teams from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and the Palm Bay Police Department responded to the incident.

The former employee, who was recently let go from the hospital, fired shots in the cafeteria and barricaded himself in the building.

Detectives at the scene suggested Jack had been distraught about losing his job, was suicidal, and had actually gone to the hospital to say goodbye to former colleagues.